The present disclosure relates to a communication environment, and more particularly, to providing improved apparatus and methods of managing licensed items, such as content and/or a service, on a communication device.
Although the described aspects relate generally to communication devices, an example use case with mobile devices illustrates problems with current licensing models. Mobile operators or mobile device carriers play a major part in the telecommunication industry today. Initially, such mobile operators concentrated their efforts on generating revenue by increasing their subscriber base. However, it will be appreciated that in several countries, the scope for increasing the subscriber base has now become very limited, as the market has reached close to saturation point. As a result, the mobile operators have been branching into providing value added services to subscribers, in order to increase their revenue.
One means of generating increased revenue is through the sales of premium content and/or services to users, such as ringtones, wallpaper, games, etc. These items may be provided by the mobile operators themselves, or by business entities who may operate in collaboration with the mobile operators to provide such items. In some aspects, for example, these content and/or service items may be available for download to a user's communication device, such as a mobile device, upon payment of a fee.
Many benefits such as maximizing the potential earnings for sales may accrue upon recommending and distributing to users content and/or services that are of interest to the users. The user can have a better experience using the user's communication device in light of these content and/or services. Licensing of such content and/or services can provide an incentive for providers to create such offerings.
Providers of content and/or services can make particular types of such items subject to differing licensing terms, such as a period of use, number of uses, ability of an end user to transfer the item, etc., which present a complex management problem for licensing to communication devices or mobile devices. In particular, changes (e.g., download/installation, recall, upgrade, update, transfer, usage monitoring, deletion, etc.) related to a licensed item create difficulties for managing licenses at the device and/or at a network.